An Analysis of Symbolic Violence in Classical Texts Comparatively to Modern Feminist Adaptations
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Senior Theses and Projects Student Scholarship Spring 5-2021 An Analysis of Symbolic Violence in Classical Texts Comparatively to Modern Feminist Adaptations Marisa Berner [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses Part of the Classical Literature and Philology Commons, Other Classics Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Berner, Marisa, "An Analysis of Symbolic Violence in Classical Texts Comparatively to Modern Feminist Adaptations". Senior Theses, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 2021. Trinity College Digital Repository, https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses/921 An Analysis of Symbolic Violence in Classical Texts Comparatively to Modern Feminist Adaptations By Marisa Berner to The Classical Studies Department In partial fulfillment of the requirements for Honors in Classical Studies Trinity College Hartford, CT May 15, 2021 Martha Risser Martha Risser Thesis Advisor Department Chair Berner 1 Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..3 Symbolic Violence………………………………………………………………...........................3 Homer’s Iliad……………………………………………………………………………………...6 Briseis……………………………………………………………………………………..6 Ovid’s Metamorphoses…………………………………………………………………………..14 Eurydice………………………………………………………………………….............14 Pygmalion’s Statue………………………………………………………………………18 Thetis ………………..…………………………………………………………………...21 Euripides………………………………………………………………………………………....25 Iphigenia…………………………………………………………………………………25 Polyxena………………………………………………………………………………….32 Conclusion and Influences on Modern Life……………………………………………………...37 Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………………...44 Berner 2 Abstract: This thesis explores the symbolic violence and misogyny present in Classical texts, and then compares them to modern feminist adaptations or retellings of the same stories. We explore the treatment of Briseis and other enslaved women in the Greek camp throughout the Iliad, and compare Homer’s perspective to Pat Barker’s in her book Silence of the Girls. We then look at Ovid’s Metamorphoses compared to Wake, Siren by Nina Maclaughlin, and finish with the comparison of Euripides’ plays Iphigenia at Aulis, Iphigenia Among the Taurians, and Hecuba to A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. The thesis concludes that the adaptations bring a previously unheard and marginalized perspective to light, and also work to undo some of the damage that the original stories did on women’s rights through to the present day, helping women to redetermine and reannounce what their role in their society should be. Berner 3 Introduction Texts and stories from Classical Antiquity have embedded crucial messages and thought-provoking themes throughout. However, these messages and themes are representative of the culture in which they were speaking to, which was a misogynistic culture that sought to exclude women from public life. When looking at these texts such as the Iliad and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, it becomes clear how the authors used these tales to send a violent message about the treatment and use of women; and unfortunately, the consequences of those choices still affect our societies today. Through the portrayal of these women, Homer communicates to the readers that the woman’s role is to be silenced and used to the advantage of the males in control of them. This paper will argue that such Classical authors commit a form of symbolic violence by silencing and marginalizing women to that extreme, and will then compare specific scenes in those texts that highlight these injustices to recent feminist adaptations of the same stories. Symbolic Violence It is important to note that while violence tends to have a physical connotation attached to it, there are many forms of violence that are not physical. Symbolic violence is one of those, and is defined as a form of violence that “Is exercised upon a social agent with his or her complicity… through an act of cognition and of misrecognition that lies beyond -- or beneath -- the controls of consciousness and will” (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 272 - 273). Simply put, it is a power differential between two parties that restricts and strips power from one party and transfers it to the other, generally through the practice of cultural norms and expectations. An excellent example is that of gender roles, wherein women are expected to be subservient to men -- and consequently, there is a power differential between the two parties, with men having women’s power transferred to themselves. Gender roles typically present Berner 4 themselves through cultural norms and practices such as having women be the ones that do the cooking and cleaning, or expecting them to give up their careers in order to raise children; or if they choose to keep their careers, they are still the ones expected to be overly involved in the Parent-Teacher Association and their children’s education. While none of these things are necessarily harmful by themselves and are generally imposed unconsciously on women by both men and women, women are nonetheless still expected to do these things, and are subject to ridicule and criticism if they choose not to. At that point, it starts inflicting harm upon women and removes their ability to freely choose what roles they want to fulfill -- even though neither men or women may be actively aware that these are pressures and rules imposed upon them. But, both parties have unconsciously agreed that this is a role women should fill -- and it is this precise removal of autonomy and free will that makes it symbolic violence. Women were subject to symbolic violence in Ancient Greece, and as that was an overtly patriarchal society -- more so even than ours is today -- their restrictions and rules were much more severe and strict. In Sarah Pomeroy’s book Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity, the author discusses the patriarchal code that women were subject to in Ancient Greece and how, even though women have always been completely capable of having their own autonomy and free will, their society was nonetheless structured so that they were unable to, and they were instead completely dependent on the men in their lives. Women in Homeric Greece were viewed both symbolically and literally as objects and prizes such that owning them added greatly to a soldier’s κλέος (glory), and their only purpose in life was to marry and have children (Pomeroy, 16-32). When looking at the misogyny in Classical texts, it is important to note that while the modern world has racism and misogyny intertwined and interacting with each other, the Hellenic Berner 5 era -- despite expanding over parts of Southern Europe, the Middle East, and Northern Africa -- did not consider skin color or biology to be the source of one’s race; rather, they were more concerned with whether or not an individual was a “citizen” or a “foreigner” (i.e., a “barbarian”). Consequently, when looking at these texts, it would be difficult to look at the intersectionality of race and gender in these societies, as we would be applying a different social construct than was present to these texts (McCoskey, 2020). Furthermore, not enough physical characteristics are given of the women discussed in either Ovid, Euripides, or Homer’s works here for us to be able to determine which racial group they may have belonged to, further discouraging the potential for an intersectional lens on the symbolic violence present. Even in regards to slavery, while the modern world has only had specific racial groups enslaved, in Ancient Greece, slaves were obtained through capture in war casually and sporadically, and most men were either killed or sold off. Women and children, however, were kept and became enslaved, and were referred to as trophies of war, passed around between men to symbolize the amount of κλέος a man had. Briseis was one of these women, and after having her city sacked by the Greeks, became a concubine for Achilles. Throughout the Iliad, it appears as though the only enslaved people within the Greek war camp are female; all of the men are freemen and soldiers. Moreover, there appear to be almost no females in the camp that are not enslaved. This separation between the two genders with females as enslaved and men as freemen are gender roles in this context exclusively, with the women being told to serve and the men being served. This inability for women to be anything other than a slave within the camp restricts women to an almost silent and completely marginalized role, as both parties have unanimously agreed that in the camp, a woman’s role is to serve men; she is not to exist in any other way. This marginalization and objectification due to these harmful gender roles makes the Iliad ripe with Berner 6 countless forms of symbolic violence (Westerman, 1-3). Furthermore, their use as a γέρας, or trophy of war, had them viewed as a collective, which denied them both free will and autonomy so that even in an epic, they were seen as someone’s future possession instead of a thinking and feeling individual human being deserving of rights (Rodriguez, 2017). Homer’s Iliad Briseis Recognizing this, the Iliad begins in Book One with a verbal altercation between two generals, Agamemnon and Achilles, over the ownership of Achilles’ prize, Briseis. Agamemnon had previously chosen a different girl named Chryseis to be his γέρας but her father was a priest and asked Apollo to invoke a plague upon the Greek war camp until his daughter was returned to him. Apollo obliged, and after a fair amount of deaths, the soldiers started to pressure Agamemnon into returning Chryseis. Eventually Agamemnon acquiesced to their demands, on the contingency that “Since Phoebus Apollo is taking away my Chryseis, whom I’m sending back aboard ship with my friends, I’m coming to your [Achilles] hut and taking Briseis, your own beautiful prize, so that you will see just how much stronger I am than you, and the next person will wince at the thought of opposing me as an equal” (Homer, 1.192 - 198). It is clear here that Agamemnon feels as though losing Chryseis would be a blow to his κλέος and to rectify this, he needs to take someone else’s trophy.